Bail for Yermak posted by seven companies and seven individuals — details from Skhemy and Ukrainska Pravda

Before the weekend, seven companies had transferred more than 94 million hryvnias in bail for former head of the presidential office Andriy Yermak, but 85 million hryvnias were still needed to reach the full amount.

According to Skhemy, citing sources in law enforcement, the missing sum was contributed by six additional companies. Ukrainska Pravda reports that seven individuals also joined in posting bail.

30 million hryvnias were transferred by the “Research Forensic Expert Institution” — a private organization from Kyiv founded in 2017. Until September 2025, it participated in tenders held by state institutions and municipal enterprises for forensic examinations and research. The company’s director, Volodymyr Ivankov, explained his decision to journalists as follows:

“I just felt like doing it… I see it as advertising for my firm,” Ivankov said.

32 million hryvnias were contributed by a Dnipro-based company, “Specialized Directorate Stroyelektromontazh,” whose primary line of business is the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. In 2017, it appeared in a National Police criminal proceeding concerning the alleged laundering of criminally obtained funds and tax evasion.

14 million hryvnias were paid by the Kyiv law association “De Lege Lata.” Its director, Vitaliy Marfin, is, according to High Council of Justice member Roman Maselko, a former employee of the Main Department for Counterintelligence Protection of the Economy of the SBU Directorate in Kyiv and the husband of Dniprovskyi District Court judge Natalia Marfina. In 2011, Marfin was detained on suspicion of accepting a bribe of 180,000 dollars; he was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to a fine of 25,000 hryvnias.

10.2 million hryvnias were transferred by the private enterprise “SV-GRUP,” which deals in automobile sales. 4 million hryvnias each were contributed by the law association “A.DVA.KA.T” headed by Yaroslav Kuts — who ran for the Verkhovna Rada in 2019 on the European Solidarity ticket, ran for the Irpin city council in 2020 as an independent, and in 2016 appeared as an expert on the crime talk show “Viewer as Witness” on the TV channel Ukraine — and by LLC “Arena Marin,” a logistics company from Odesa with a charter capital of 40,000 hryvnias, owned by Oleksandr Rusniak. In total, the six companies contributed an additional 94.1 million hryvnias. In addition, LLC “Miralif” posted 9.8 million hryvnias in bail.

On May 18, after four days in pre-trial detention, Andriy Yermak was released — the High Anti-Corruption Court confirmed that the full bail amount had been paid.

Yermak is suspected of an offense under part three of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — the laundering of 460 million hryvnias through elite construction near Kyiv. In the same case, former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, businessman Tymur Mindich, and four individuals under Chernyshov’s control are also named as suspects.

The case concerns the construction of four buildings of the “Dynastiya” cooperative in Kozyn near Kyiv. Financing was carried out using money from shell companies, cash from “Mindich’s laundromat” — which laundered money through corruption schemes at PJSC NAEK Energoatom (72% of total financing) — as well as money of undetermined origin. The case is part of Operation Midas, exposed by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in November 2025.